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Have you ever ever taken a yoga class wherein the trainer’s cues persistently landed on the precise second you wanted them and never a second eventually? The expertise can really feel so seamless, so intuitive, it’s simple to underestimate the quantity of labor it takes by the trainer.
Some of the difficult elements of studying methods to educate yoga is navigating the necessity to expertly transfer college students from one pose to a different. It’s one factor to memorize the anatomical principle and litany of alignment cues for every pose throughout your yoga trainer coaching. It’s fairly one other to take that static principle and translate it to precise cues in a method that’s concise sufficient to synchronize motion with breath.
Lecturers are sometimes taught to cue yoga poses as static shapes. Which means there are yoga cues for the place of a foot, knee, hip, backbone, and arm in addition to a drishti (gaze level). While you start so as to add to this already prolonged listing of cues the directions for breath and motion, you find yourself cramming an excessive amount of info into the transient house between an inhalation and an exhalation.
The rapid-fire, stream-of-consciousness cueing that may end result creates an erratic rhythm that’s based mostly on the size of your cues and never the size of scholars’ breath. And that may really feel overwhelming—particularly for many who flip to the observe as a respite from the headlong rush of life.
Cue Yoga Poses Concisely
A number of years into educating yoga, I took a coaching that taught a easy construction for cueing motion felt revelatory: Breath + Physique Half + Route.
For instance:
“Inhale proper leg excessive.”
“Exhale proper foot between your palms.”
“Inhale torso and arms carry.”
“Exhale palms plant on the entrance of the mat.”
As a result of you will have solely seconds to cue with every section of the breath and go away time to breathe your self, this implies prioritizing solely essentially the most essential info, which is what’s shifting and the place. This strategy nails that.
To be sincere, I didn’t instantly embrace this framework. In actual fact, I struggled to show this fashion. It felt too brief, too curt, as if I used to be barking orders as an alternative of sharing steering. However after I practiced it at school, I felt calmer and extra grounded in my very own breath. I additionally discovered that my pacing was extra even and pushed by the rhythm of the breath moderately than the quantity of knowledge I needed to cram in. That was sufficient to encourage me to attempt once more.
Although the unaccustomed assertiveness of this type took me a while to regulate to, I felt extra assured over time. Extra importantly, my college students appeared extra relaxed and extra current.
How I Cue My Yoga Lessons Years Later
I proceed to cue the movement portion of sophistication as concisely as I can on this method. After all, not each cue matches this mildew. Generally it makes extra sense to cue in a barely completely different order or method. For instance “Inhale, stand tall” or “exhale, step ahead.”
As a trainer, you study to repeatedly regulate to the scenario. One factor that you want to perceive is you’ll be able to cue for exact and nuanced alignment in a pose and you’ll cue for environment friendly motion in between poses. However you’ll be able to’t do each on the identical time.
When your sequence requires spending slightly time constructing, adjusting, and integrating a pose, let your college students linger for a number of breaths as you share extra nuanced alignment cues. Then when your sequence requires a rhythmic vinyasa, let go of the small print and permit motion itself to be the target.
Like all new ability, this one will most likely take a while to study. And if you take some time, it’s going to very seemingly create precisely what your class, and also you, have wanted.
RELATED: What I Realized About Cues in YTT Wasn’t Working. This Is What I Do As a substitute.
